Here’s a look at the announcing assignments for Week 1 of the NFL season, with some discussion of a featured game in each slot based on broadcasters, matchup, or both. All times are Eastern.
Thursday, September 5
Featured (only) game: Baltimore at Kansas City
NBC/Telemundo/Peacock: 8:20 p.m.
NBC/Peacock: Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark
Telemundo: Miguel Gurwitz, Rolando Cantú, Ariana Figuera
Westwood One Radio: Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner
This 2023 AFC Championship Game rematch should be a great one. The Chiefs are starting their Super Bowl title defense, and they’re doing so against a strong Ravens’ team that went 13-4 last season (better than Kansas City’s 11-6 regular-season mark). There will certainly be plenty of eyes on the quarterback duel between Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson.
And there will be eyes on the stands on Travis Kelce’s girlfriend Taylor Swift, who will be in attendance (per The Athletic’s sources). That probably means the great debate over how much NFL broadcasts should show and discuss Swift will get started for this season this week as well. (It already sort of has, with discussion of her in a NFL “Football is back” video, but this will mark the regular-season debut of that argument.)
Friday, September 6
Featured (only) game: Green Bay at Philadelphia (São Paulo, Brazil)
Peacock 8:15 p.m.
Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, Kaylee Hartung
Westwood One Radio: Scott Graham, Mike Mayock
The NFL’s first-ever game in Brazil has already made headlines for a lot of off-field discussions, from wearing green to wildfires to the country’s recent X/Twitter ban. But the on-field matchup is interesting too. The Packers were just 9-8 last regular season, Jordan Love’s first as a starter, and barely snuck into the NFC’s last playoff spot, but beat the second-seeded Dallas Cowboys handily in the wild-card round and only lost by three to the eventual conference champion San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round.
Meanwhile, the Eagles went 11-6 and claimed the NFC’s fifth seed, but lost 32-9 to the fourth-seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round. Now, we get to see how they’ll do without former center Jason Kelce, who retired and joined ESPN this offseason. We also will get to see how NBC’s backup announcing team of Eagle, Blackledge, and Hartung do.
Sunday, September 8, Early Games
Pittsburgh at Atlanta
FOX 1 p.m.
Joe Davis, Greg Olsen, Pam Oliver
ESPN Radio: Steve Levy, Harry Douglas
Arizona at Buffalo
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Tom McCarthy, Jay Feely, Ross Tucker, Tiffany Blackmon
Tennessee at Chicago
FOX 1 p.m.
Adam Amin, Mark Sanchez, Kristina Pink
Featured game: New England at Cincinnati
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, Evan Washburn
Sports USA Radio: John Ahlers, James White
This CBS singleheader is going to much of both the East Coast and Midwest, and there’s good reason for that. There’s intrigue around the Patriots’ first regular-season game since 2000 where they won’t be coached by Bill Belichick. And we’ll see how 38-year-old rookie head coach and former New England linebacker Jerod Mayo does in his debut in place of the legendary coach turned man-with-a-million-media-gigs. You can bet the announcing booth of Eagle and Davis will have a lot of discussion of Belichick and Mayo.
There’s also a potential quarterback controversy for the Patriots (4-13 last season). They’ve named Jacoby Brissett their starter, but he only played in three games for Washington last year (starting none) due to injury. But after an impressive preseason, third-overall pick Drake Maye is expected to start for the Patriots at some point this year; how well Brissett plays may determine when that happens. Meanwhile, for the Bengals (9-8 last year, missed the playoffs), this will be QB Joe Burrow’s first regular-season game since a season-ending injury on Nov. 16. He looked good in some limited preseason action, but how will he do under actual fire?
Houston at Indianapolis
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Jason McCourty, AJ Ross
Compass Media Radio: Chris Carrino, Brian Baldinger
Jacksonville at Miami
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Kevin Harlan, Trent Green, Melanie Collins
Carolina at New Orleans
FOX 1 p.m.
Chris Myers, Mark Schlereth, Jen Hale
Minnesota at NY Giants
FOX 1 p.m.
Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma, Megan Olivi
Las Vegas at LA Chargers
CBS/Paramount+ 4:05 p.m.
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson
Sports USA Radio: Larry Kahn, Alex Mack
Sunday, September 8, Late Games
Denver at Seattle
CBS/Paramount+ 4:05 p.m.
Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta, Aditi Kinkhabwala
ESPN Radio: Roxy Bernstein, Tom Ramsey
Featured game: Dallas at Cleveland
FOX 4:25 p.m.
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi
Compass Media Radio: Kevin Ray, Steve Beuerlein
Even more than the on-field matchup here, the world will be watching this one for Tom Brady’s announcing debut. Fox’s $375 million man has received so much discussion before he’s even called a game (at least, for public consumption; he has done some off-air practice runs with Burkhardt). Brady will be working under some constraints thanks to being banned from the typical production meetings due to his bid to take a stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, but that hasn’t turned Fox off of featuring him as their No. 1 analyst (also interesting and unusual for someone with no broadcasting experience, but it has been done at times, as with Tony Romo at CBS in 2017).
On the field, the Cowboys (12-5 last season) will be looking to bounce back from that crushing first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Packers, and quarterback Dak Prescott will continue to try and prove he deserves a big contract extension. Meanwhile, the Browns went 11-6 last season and earned the AFC’s No. 5 seed, but fell to the Houston Texans in the first round. And their QB, Deshaun Watson, has been under plenty of on- and off-field fire following his 2022 trade from Houston, new five-year, $230 million contract with Cleveland, and 11-game suspension from the NFL after 24 women accused him of sexual assault. So he’ll present a difficult subject for Brady to cover in his debut.
Washington at Tampa Bay
FOX 4:25 p.m.
Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston, Laura Okmin
LA Rams at Detroit
NBC/Universo/Peacock 8:20 p.m.
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark
Universo: Miguel Gurwitz, Rolando Cantú, Ariana Figuera
Westwood One Radio: Ryan Radtke, Mike Golic
Monday, September 9
Featured/only game: NY Jets at San Francisco
ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/ESPN+ 8:15 p.m.
Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters
ESPN2: Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Bill Belichek, Guests TBA
ESPN Deportes: Rebeca Landa, Sebastián Martinez-Christensen, MJ Acosta-Ruiz
Westwood One Radio: Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner
This Monday Night Football debut has plenty going for it. It will be Aaron Rodgers’ first game since his season-opening injury last year (also in the MNF debut game), and just his second for the Jets. But he and that team (which went 7-10 last year) will have their hands full against the Super Bowl runner-up 49ers, who went 12-5 last regular season and also shone in the playoffs.
San Francisco QB Brock Purdy will have Brandon Aiyuk to throw to as well after a protracted contract dispute got resolved with an extension last week. And speaking of debuts, this game may be a pivotal point in the Disney-DirecTV carriage dispute. We’ll see if DirecTV subscribers get to watch it (with it being an ABC simulcast, there is always an antenna option). But there will certainly be lots of others tuning in.
H/T Sammy!
